Official Crystal Web ADSL performance feedback thread Part 2...

Are you satisfied with your Crystal Web account?

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StormHorse said:
And I think as a paying customer I am entitled to get a better defined answer than "when it's ready" some of us might prefer not to stay with CW if the problem would persist into next month.
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sure, but it's kind of like crapping all over a shopkeeper when he can't supply the product you want because further along the value chain one of his suppliers has got a problem, I'm sure CW would love nothing more than to be able to give you a definitive answer
 
Network update:

In lieu of not having a specific update from Telkom, Plan B is being put in action until further confirmation from Telkom. This will mean that customers in the Cape will begin to see throughput on downloads resolved over the course of this week (we're hoping in the next 48 hours [midweek]) and customers in the rest of the country will see their download speeds start getting better immediately thereafter. This will be a major core routing change while we await Telkom's final fulfillment of the work order. Official communication to this effect will be sent out today.

We're committed to going over and above for customers which is why such drastic measures are being taken even just as an intermediate solution to the download speeds.

Technical details:

One of the core links on the network was to be replaced with a new link and traffic split between the new and old fibre links. The new link was to be installed last week. This morning it was confirmed that the order was not filled by Telkom after confirmation of the order fulfillment was received on Thursday - this has been escalated to their executive management team to complete immediately. In the interim, traffic will be split in the major metropolitan areas to offload the strain on the existing link via alternate data centres and routing. This is a complicated and expensive routing change, which is why it is only used as a "push come to shove" situation. Unlike other ISPs who allow this to play out over months on end, we have a solution and will be implementing it within the same month the issue occurred.

Currently contentions are increased on all protocols, but real-time traffic is heavily prioritised to prevent issues in this respect. Real-time traffic being gaming, streaming, VOIP etc. This results in downloads not achieving full speed, and in many cases downloads having to be rate limited to avoid any network degradation. This interim measure will see preventative download rate limiting being removed, and contentions decrease across all services, returning the service to as close to normal as possible. This will mean that 10, 20, and 40Mbps customers should see all of their services returning to close to optimal levels within the week. I say close to optimal, but it should actually be optimal. The escalation of the issue to the Telkom executive team should also see the link being installed very quickly.

In summary: there is a delay on Telkom's side. We are implementing a plan to temporarily resolve the problem until we are 100% confident all work has been completed. The temporary plan is being implemented now, and speeds should be fixed this week. Apologies for the delay - really, we profusely apologise. In order to make it up to you, we will be offering capped customers additional data next month, and uncapped customers will have their tier 1 allocations increased. Next month these issues will not exist.

I should note that because we are under pressure to provide time-frames, this week has been indicated - this is however a major core routing change and if any testing shows problems it can be delayed, as no "testing" will be deployed to customers. This is always a possibility, but come month end this should no longer exist as an issue (and hopefully come week-end it won't), and we will always look after our customers who have been affected. We only received confirmation of the routing changes 20 minutes ago, and should there be any other updates I will immediately update everyone.
 
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I should note that because we are under pressure to provide time-frames, this week has been indicated - this is however a major routing change and if any testing shows problems it can be delayed. This is always a possibility, but come month end this should no longer exist as an issue (and hopefully come week-end it won't), and we will always look after our customers who have been affected. We only received confirmation of the routing changes 20 minutes ago, and should there be any other updates I will immediately update everyone.
 
Crystal Web said:
This month in lieu of the slow downloads we will not be moving anyone to tier 2. And we may extend that to next month as well as give capped customers a larger cap next month or let them roll some gigs over for 3 months.

Just waiting on my end for an official response from Telkom to give to you guys.
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While that is a nice gesture, it is still frustrating for a customer to deal with the issues. I've been on live chat every week for the last month. On your site, you have a testimonial stating "CW just works". But it doesn't does it? I fully understand that as a new ISP, we expected glitches and minor issues, but I can't think of a single deadline being met where a launch was concerned i.e website, customer portal, additional packages etc. That to me is alarming.

Having said that, I am happy customer and will not be moving in the foreseeable future. There are some minor irritations yes, but for now, I can live with it. I do think CW needs to get their act together though.

This is not intended to be rude at all. Just expressing how I feel.
 
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F1 Fan said:
On your site, you have a testimonial stating "CW just works".
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That is my testimonial on the site, and I am on the verge of asking for it to be removed, because for the past three weeks I have been back to switching accounts.
 
Crystal Web said:
This month in lieu of the slow downloads we will not be moving anyone to tier 2. And we may extend that to next month as well as give capped customers a larger cap next month or let them roll some gigs over for 3 months.

Just waiting on my end for an official response from Telkom to give to you guys.
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Much appreciated. Here's hoping the final fixes go smoothly :)
 
F1 Fan said:
While that is a nice gesture, it is still frustrating for a customer to deal with the issues. I've been on live chat every week for the last month. On your site, you have a testimonial stating "CW just works". But it doesn't does it? I fully understand that as a new ISP, we expected glitches and minor issues, but I can't think of a single deadline being met where a launch was concerned i.e website, customer portal, additional packages etc. That to me is alarming.

Having said that, I am happy customer and will not be moving in the foreseeable future. There are some minor irritations yes, but for now, I can live with it. I do think CW needs to get their act together though.
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I appreciate the feedback. The reason for delaying the new website is due to the network issues. I am not prepared to release the new site, products, and start marketing our business knowing full well that there are download speed issues that we first need to resolve. I believe that this is the responsible thing to do. The last thing we wanted to do was release products/launch over December or January, but if that's what's needed to ethically market our business and products then so be it. The customer portal is live, and new deployments are happening all of the time with new updates. The next few deployments will include line migration options, managing DSL lines properly, complete self support and new payment options via credit card and even debit card. Our primary focus however is resolving the download speeds for customers, and has taken priority.

Just with regards to where we are: we have a full support team; our billing and finance department has grown; we have a technical team; and we have executive management, and will be adding a new office location in the new year as well to support our growth. We are releasing our full product suite and the new site once I am suitably happy with the network performance to be sure that we can 100% deliver on our promises on the new products, and we will be releasing two new Crystal Web departments relating to fibre in the new year now too. I'd have loved to have released these all sooner (we all would have) but circumstances did not allow for it. Bear in mind it's a huge cost to carry, so it's not something we have delayed without serious consideration.
 
Thank you for doing extra for us CW. Other isp's would just tell us to wait on telkom...
 
Crystal Web said:
I appreciate the feedback. The reason for delaying the new website is due to the network issues. I am not prepared to release the new site, products, and start marketing our business knowing full well that there are download speed issues that we first need to resolve. I believe that this is the responsible thing to do. The last thing we wanted to do was release products/launch over December or January, but if that's what's needed to ethically market our business and products then so be it. The customer portal is live, and new deployments are happening all of the time with new updates. The next few deployments will include line migration options, managing DSL lines properly, complete self support and new payment options via credit card and even debit card. Our primary focus however is resolving the download speeds for customers, and has taken priority.

Just with regards to where we are: we have a full support team; our billing and finance department has grown; we have a technical team; and we have executive management, and will be adding a new office location in the new year as well to support our growth. We are releasing our full product suite and the new site once I am suitably happy with the network performance to be sure that we can 100% deliver on our promises on the new products, and we will be releasing two new Crystal Web departments relating to fibre in the new year now too. I'd have loved to have released these all sooner (we all would have) but circumstances did not allow for it. Bear in mind it's a huge cost to carry, so it's not something we have delayed without serious consideration.
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Oki, all the best. I've said it before and I'll say it again,I am seriously rooting for you guys and I sincerely hope everything takes off nicely. I will continue to give what I deem to be constructive criticism though.
 
This is why I will be supporting CW. All things being equal, it is easy to complain, but never have I had this type of resolution and input from any previous ISP. CW has issues, yes, however it is being resolved, not like some others who string their customers along for months on end without applying the necessary fixes to their network.

Thanks to Shaun and the team for the feedback!

Crystal Web said:
I appreciate the feedback. The reason for delaying the new website is due to the network issues. I am not prepared to release the new site, products, and start marketing our business knowing full well that there are download speed issues that we first need to resolve. I believe that this is the responsible thing to do. The last thing we wanted to do was release products/launch over December or January, but if that's what's needed to ethically market our business and products then so be it. The customer portal is live, and new deployments are happening all of the time with new updates. The next few deployments will include line migration options, managing DSL lines properly, complete self support and new payment options via credit card and even debit card. Our primary focus however is resolving the download speeds for customers, and has taken priority.

Just with regards to where we are: we have a full support team; our billing and finance department has grown; we have a technical team; and we have executive management, and will be adding a new office location in the new year as well to support our growth. We are releasing our full product suite and the new site once I am suitably happy with the network performance to be sure that we can 100% deliver on our promises on the new products, and we will be releasing two new Crystal Web departments relating to fibre in the new year now too. I'd have loved to have released these all sooner (we all would have) but circumstances did not allow for it. Bear in mind it's a huge cost to carry, so it's not something we have delayed without serious consideration.
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May I ask, why did you bother to launch this Portal?

There's nothing there.
You have a few place holders and some usage stats, that's it.
Why bother?
It's looks really amateurish and is starting to make me question you guys due to my bad line performance and now these continued promises with lack luster returns.
 
Electric said:
May I ask, why did you bother to launch this Portal?

There's nothing there.
You have a few place holders and some usage stats, that's it.
Why bother?
It's looks really amateurish and is starting to make me question you guys due to my bad line performance and now these continued promises with lack luster returns.
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I think it looks great, but the functionality is slim at the moment. It's a beta version, as customers primarily requested usage information. As mentioned in one of my recent posts, more deployments will be released to allow you to fully self support and manage your account from there. One such deployment should be happening tonight with additional functionality added.
 
I agree with Electric ito how the Portal look. I under stand that it still under development, but it looks lame in my opinion and not professional.
 
Crystal Web said:
Network update:

......

Currently contentions are increased on all protocols, but real-time traffic is heavily prioritised to prevent issues in this respect. Real-time traffic being gaming, streaming, VOIP etc. This results in downloads not achieving full speed, and in many cases downloads having to be rate limited to avoid any network degradation. This interim measure will see preventative download rate limiting being removed, and contentions decrease across all services, returning the service to as close to normal as possible. This will mean that 10, 20, and 40Mbps customers should see all of their services returning to close to optimal levels within the week. I say close to optimal, but it should actually be optimal. The escalation of the issue to the Telkom executive team should also see the link being installed very quickly.

........
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What about the rest of us not on 10, 20 or 40Mbps? Just asking, no sarcasm intended.
 
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